We seem to be running all the time. But what are we running after?

I read a story in my childhood which I still vividly remember. The story goes like this:-

?A farmer staying in a small town had a pet dog. The dog used to sit at the gate of the farmer’s house. Everyday many vehicles used to pass by the farmer’s house. Whenever, a vehicle passed by the house, the dog used to bark and run after that. One day the farmer’s friend visited him. He asked the farmer, ”Why is your dog chasing these vehicles all the time? Does he think that he would be able to catch any of these speeding vehicles?” The farmer smiled and said,” Brother, the question whether he can catch any vehicle or not doesn’t bother me. But what bothers me is the question: What will he do, if one day he catches any of these vehicles or their drivers? Does he have any idea?”

Friends, this is the state of the human mind today. Everyone seems to be on the run. But what is their destination? Where is everyone running towards? In the corporate world, we call it rat race. In a rat race, every rat tries to race ahead of every other rat. But the rat doesn’t know where it is racing towards. ?? Man is in a similar race today. When you look around, you would find everyone is running. They have no respite from running. Looks like it is an urgent race and many things will slip away from our hands, if we do not run and get there first. But the question is "what is going to slip away from us and where we need to get before others get there?"

?Where has our uninterrupted running brought us to? In our 20s we run and run to be the best in our college or University. In our 30s we are always on the run to ensure we find a job and build our career. In our 40s and 50s we run after more wealth, bigger titles, name, fame, power, control, social status and so on. During this time hundreds of people run behind us, salute us, adulate us no end. Then comes our 60s, when the race starts slowing down. At this time, we begin to see less people around us. People who were hanging around us seem to have moved away from us. They don’t even acknowledge us if bump into them somewhere. Our children have also moved away from us and have joined their own race in their life. We begin to think “why was I running all this while? What for? Where have I reached in life?” We feel very very lonely, deserted, dejected and rejected. Is this the life we asked for?

Winston Churchill says, “We?make?a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” This statement is so profound. It means what we take from this world gives us our livelihood, but what we give this world gives us our life. Our inner urge is for the bliss of life. But what we run after mindlessly is our livelihood. We want life but instead of seeking the clue of living life, we run after the means of livelihood. Our soul wants to give but our mind wants to take. What ensues is a battle between the soul and the mind. Very often, it is our mind that overpowers our soul.

When the mind overpowers our soul, our life begins to disintegrate. It is because our mind drags us in multiple directions. Sometimes we are dragged by temptations and sometimes we are dragged by addictions. And some other time we get dragged by complexes like anger, jealousy, infatuation, lust etc. The outcome is that we start running in different directions at different times without knowing when we are running towards what and why. We get pulled and dragged and slowly fall apart. Our education, qualification, profession, wealth etc. don’t come to our rescue at that point in time. Being directionless man gives up hope.

How can we save ourselves from this disintegration? How can we keep all aspects of our life in harmony? How can we make our life stable, balanced and coherent. Well, the?answer is simple. Nature explains this to us in a simple yet compelling way, However, the question is: Are we learning enough from nature? We shall talk about it in the next article.